Within the scope of the introduction of new legislation to protect pedestrians, various active measures are planned for meeting the requirements. To this end, force and/or pressure sensors will increasingly be installed in motor vehicles in the next few years; in the event of an impact or collision these sensors will detect what type of object the vehicle has hit. Thus, for example, it will be possible to distinguish whether the vehicle has hit a tree, another vehicle or a pedestrian. In order to implement effective protection for pedestrians, if a collision with a pedestrian is detected a suitable reaction will then occur, i.e. suitable measures will be triggered such as, for example, the deploying of airbags or the deformation of the bonnet.
The sensors used for this purpose thus have to deliver a signal extremely quickly to allow reliable identification.
The printed specification DE 195 34 260 C2 discloses a fiber-optic load sensor in the form of a cable in which the load acts on an optical fiber arrangement. The optical fiber arrangement comprises two optical fibers which are both wound in the same direction around a plastic core.